


Don't You Worry, Love

by Determined_Day_Dreamer



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: First Meetings, Friendship, Ghost Mettaton, Happstablook - Freeform, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Canon, Tags May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-25 13:36:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6197059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Determined_Day_Dreamer/pseuds/Determined_Day_Dreamer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It'd been pure coincidence, that the two of them had been brought together. Most people Alphys met was by nothing more than chance. If it wasn't from something work-related, it was true, dumb luck that the young scientist had gotten to meet the monsters in her life. And, like most of these chance encounters, this one had taken place in the Dump..."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't You Worry, Love

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of... a headcanon, if you will, about how I picture Alphys and Mettaton (aka: Happstablook) met. I have more in-store for this story. But I'm not quite sure yet on whether I want to combine the different chapters into one big one-shot after I finished them or not.
> 
> Eh, I guess I'll figure that stuff out as I go along.
> 
> I hope you enjoy the chapter!

It'd been pure coincidence, that the two of them had been brought together. Most people Alphys met was by nothing more than chance. If it wasn't from something work-related, it was true, dumb luck that the young scientist had gotten to meet the monsters in her life. And, like most of these chance encounters, this one had taken place in the Dump.  
  
The reptilian monster had been wading through the warmish, trash-scented water, pausing now and again to investigate something her foot had brushed over, or pick through a new heap of garbage that had collected since the last time she'd visited. Odds and ends were meticulously packed into the many pockets of her wet lab coat: anime CDs, the stray figurine, an occasional unopened package of astronaut food or ramen noodles, little trinkets that she had found interesting, or could somehow implement into one of her many projects back at home... A lot of it was scratched, faded, or otherwise forgotten. Most of the stuff that fell from the Surface World was damaged in some way. Broken. Unwanted.  
  
Just an endless cycle of useless garbage.  
  
Sounded kind of familiar...  
  
Alphys sighed to herself, absently packing another trinket into her coat - it was made of metal, shaped in a compact series of curls that were tangled or bent the wrong way. If memory served correctly, one of her animes had had something like it in an episode. It was called a... 'springy', or a 'slinker', or something like that... She could fix it when she got back to the lab, right? The faint babbling of water rushed around her thighs as it pushed itself to somewhere behind her. The rumbling of a small waterfall with a melancholy rumble around the cavern, and an absent shiver ran up the scientist's spine.  
  
An endless cycle...  
  
She shook her head, mumbling something incomprehensible under her breath. Alphys was about to wade her way back towards Hotland, when she heard it.  
  
Soft, delicate, and mournful sounds, whimpering their way from behind one of the larger heaps of trash.  
  
Someone was crying. It was quiet, but something deep inside of Alphys' SOUL ached at the depths of the weeping monster's agony. She could hear it as if they were shrieking their pain directly into her ear. Nervousness filled her. Should she keep walking, and leave the monster to their crying in peace? Or should she try to approach them, and maybe... make them feel better? Alphys had horrible social anxiety, and she knew it. People were just... not her thing. She'd much rather stay holed up in the Lab, fan-girling over anime and hot ramen noodles like the otaku trash that she was. She'd never been the greatest conversationalist. Usually, she just ended up scaring the person off, or annoying them with her constant stuttering and apologies...  
  
But this monster, whomever they were, sounded like they were in unimaginable distress and emotional pain. Alphys knew that pain all too well. In the quietness of night (or, what the monsters down here had come to think of as 'night' - they couldn't really tell, considering the lack of a sun and moon to see), barricaded inside her home and workplace. Sobbing her heart out into a blanket or a pillow out of anguish for the things she had done, the mistakes she had made, and the people she missed. Introverted, she may be, but although she liked to be alone, Alphys did not fancy being lonely. Some days it was difficult just to get out of bed, she felt so drained and numb inside. Fiddling away with projects that were doomed to fail and scribbling down reports that would get her nowhere. Watching the Underground through the many cameras she'd planted across the different biomes. Seeing friends and family interact. How happy and careless and _free_ they all were... it was... nice, in a way. But it also left a void in her chest that ached constantly.  
  
There was a reason she met so many people at the Dump. Her visits had become increasingly frequent, and not all of them were to scrounge through discarded objects for something new to watch. Sometimes, she spent the whole day or night here, sitting at the edge of the abyss. Watching the bits of trash slide down into a yawning blackness with the gentle current, to who-knew-where, an unknown distance below. Thinking... wondering... what would happen if she just... _fell_.  
  
Alphys gave her head a hard shake, making up her mind. Adjusting the neckline of her lab coat self-consciously, she waddled through the water towards the sounds of crying. Her clawed hands gripped at the cloth tightly as she tried to swallow down a familiar lump in her throat, fighting against every last cell her in body that _screamed_ at her to just _turn around and run_ -!  
  
Her foot caught on something underneath the water's surface, and Alphys stumbled with a loud splash and a yelp, arms flying out, in vain, to catch herself. Water rushed up her nose, flicking up droplets into her eyes, and the Royal Scientist coughed as some of it trickled into her throat, picking herself back up hurriedly. She felt her cheeks flush with mortification when she noticed the crying had stopped. A faint, pinkish glow highlighted the trash around them, glinting off the water like a rosy dye. Oh, god, the monster was watching her now, weren't they? God, she was such a _klutz_!  
  
Fighting back embarrassed tears, Alphys bit her lip, and slowly looked up. She found herself blinking a few times in surprise at the monster standing before her. Or, uh... maybe " _floating_ " would have been a better term. They were kind of small - maybe the size of her torso - and were colored in sweet pink. A small wisp of ectoplasm fell over one of the ghost's ovular eyes, which were still slightly wet with tears. Their body was luminescent. It was very pretty.  
  
The ghost's timid voice had an echo-like undertone to it when they spoke. "Oh... are you alright...?"  
  
Alphys inconspicuously wiped her eyes as she adjusted her glasses, and stood up. Her posture was hunched and nervous, and she avoided eye contact. Unable to muster up any words, the specter's only reply was a tight nod.  
  
"Are... are you sure?"  
  
Another nod. There was an awkward silence. Alphys felt sweat bead down her neck. She tried to swallow down the hard knot in her throat. Her jaw opened and closed a few times as she went to say something, but lost the nerve at the last second.  
  
The ghost-monster looked sheepishly to the side, the hair-like wisp falling to cover the one eye completely. "Um... I... I'll leave, now... Sorry to disturb you... Have a nice day..." They turned and began to drift away. Alphys could feel herself going pale.  
  
" _Whywereyoucrying_?" The words were forced from her lips in a nearly-incoherent ramble, fast and delivered with one, panicked breath. The ghost stopped, almost jolting in place, as if jumping in surprise. They rotated, as if glancing over a metaphorical shoulder to look at Alphys. "Wh... what?"  
  
Alphys' hands clutched at her coat like it was a lifeline. She swallowed, taking a few deep breaths. "W... wh-why w-w-were you... um... cr-cry...ing...? I-if I m-m-may ask..." She hoped the other monster didn't notice the way her hands were starting to shake. "A-a-are, um... are y-you o-okay?"  
  
The pink of the ghost's face turned to a vivid hue of vermillion, and they avoided eye contact. "O-Oh, um... I was just..." They made a sound like clearing their throat. "I-it was nothing... just... silly nonsense..."  
  
Alphys didn't miss how they hadn't answered the last part of her question. Hesitantly, she took a few steps closer. "S-so... you... y-you're _not_ a-alright?" she pressed carefully. Extrovertedly inept as she was, Alphys had enough social grace to know that crying, alone, in a garbage dump, behind a pile of trash was _definitely_ a hint at something being wrong. Something big. If it was possible, she wanted to make this shy little ghost feel a little less... lonely, if she could. She noticed their pink coloring whiten some. "S-s-sorry, for being s-so, uh... so nosy. I... I-I just... w-wanted to m-m-make sure... you were, um... r-remotely ok...ish?"  
  
The little ghost seemed to pale even further, and a guilty sense of panic blossomed in Alphys’ chest like a painful fire when she saw the moisture that beaded up in their eyes at her question. Oh, _no_ , she’d pushed them too much, hadn’t she? They were crying, Alphys had made the poor thing so uncomfortable! Her claws dug into the folds of the lab coat, and Alphys opened her mouth to apologize, when the ghost did something surprising:  
  
They surged forward, and pressed themself against her chest in what Alphys could only assume was a hug. Her arms drew up and out of the spirit’s way, and the air hitched in her lungs from pure, uncomfortable shock. Why… w-why were they _hugging_ her? What had she done to deserve a hug?  
  
Hugs were a good thing right? But… people didn’t usually hug strangers, nor did they cry while doing so. Had Alphys done something… right, for once?  
  
After a few moments’ hesitation, a shaky, yellow-scaled hand slowly came down to brush over the ghost’s head. It was bizarre, really. She had always thought a ghost would be transparent, and sort of… phased through things when they touched them. She didn’t really know of any ghost-monsters in the Underground, outside of the Blooks, here in Waterfall. But they were a notoriously shut-in family. The only people that really knew that much about them were the few, regular customers that tended to visit the Blook family’s snail farm – but they were far and few in between. Especially since the Queen had disappeared…  
  
_I wonder…_ she mused silently, still awkwardly patting the pink ghost on the head, _could they be a Blook? I don’t recognize them from any of my cameras…_  
  
As bad as she may be with people, Alphys prided herself on her ability to remember faces. So seeing a monster she didn’t recognize was kind of throwing the poor scientist for a loop. Unable to resist her curiosity, Alphys brushed the tips of her claws through the ectoplasmic fringe this potential-Blook had. It was… cute. Oddly stylish. That made them stiffen, and dissolve into even more hysterical tears. Inside, Alphys felt her chest constrict with uncertainty and fear. It felt like a strange heat had filled up her belly, and another cold sweat beaded upon her brow. Damn, she’d made them uncomfortable again, hadn’t she?!  
  
_Oh, no! God, Alphys you’re such a… Why do I have to be so **weird**?!_  
  
“S-s-sorry, I-I didn’t mean to-!”  
  
“O-oh, you d-don’t have to apologize, dear!” the weeping ghost managed between soft hiccups. After a moment to collect themself, they withdrew a few inches, floating absently in the air, level with Alphys’ snout. Subconsciously, she brushed a hand over the rounded points of her head-crest, lightly drawing her nails over the larger scales. “You, I just… I-I didn’t expect a stranger to be so kind to me, is all!” The statement was accompanied by a wet laugh, and it made an unsure smile come to Alphys’ face. “Oh, just ignore me, please, dear. I-I’m just…”  
  
They shook themselves, flinging the moisture from their eyes gently. Alphys let a small, concerned frown fall over her snout. “Not alright?” she guessed sheepishly. The ghost remained silent, merely looking away. The action spoke volumes to the Royal Scientist. Clearing her throat, she tugged at the collar of her coat. “U-um… c-can I… could I m-maybe, um, as-ask for your… n-name? I-if you’re okay with telling me, that is.” It felt disrespectful, just thinking as this individual as “ _the ghost_ ”. Spirits were still monsters, after all. Every monster deserved to be called by their name.  
  
They looked mildly surprised at the question. “M-my name…?” Alphys nodded. “Happstablook… the… the ‘happy ghost’.”  
  
The end of Happstablook’s sentence was filled with a bitter sense of irony. Alphys’ lips quirked slightly in response. Ahh, there was nothing quite like an ironic, self-deprecating sense of humor. Ha.  
  
“And what would your name be, darling?”  
  
There was another pause. “U-um… A-Alph-phys… M-my name is Alphys.” Said scientist took another breath, trying to steel her nerve. "H-H... Happs-stablook?"  
  
The pink ghost gave a curious hum. "What is it, Alphys, dear?"  
  
She flushed at the kind endearment, and swallowed thickly. Come on, it shouldn't have been that difficult to ask a simple question! It was like a mental battle of the wills: her timidity, against the desire to make this monster a potential friend. To maybe, hopefully, find out what was causing them so much grief. Who knows? Maybe Alphys could help somehow. She just needed... to find a common ground to... build a friendship off of.  
  
Good God, was this how everyone felt when they tried to make new friends? It was awful.  
  
"W-w-would you... um... m-maybe be interested in... c-come... coming... o-over t-t-to..." Her voice grew more and more hushed the longer Alphys spoke. Stars above, she was so _nervous_. Well, Alphys was kind of... _always_ nervous, but this was so much worse. Would Happstablook laugh? Or think she was weird for asking? What if they made fun of her for her stammering, or her slouch, or the condition of her home? What if she bored them? She wasn't exactly... the most interesting of monsters... Alphys closed her eyes in preparation for the refusal.  
  
However, the response she got was neither immediate, nor what she had been expecting. After nearly an entire minute of silence, Alphys had dared to open her eyes a smidgen. Maybe Happstablook had left? Well, at least it'd spare her the ordeal of having to brush off the hurt of being shut down.  
  
But... no. Happstablook was still there. Floating in mid-air. There was a curious, almost cautious visage to their luminescent face as they regarded her. They blew a little air at the fringe covering their right eye. It fluttered up a moment, before drifting back into place. "You... w-want me to... come over to your... house?" they guessed. Alphys timidly fiddled with her nails, tail drawing close to curl over her feet beneath the shallow, trashy water. She forced her head to bob in a stiff nod.  
  
"Y-you don't have to... I... um, well... I was thinking..." It practically took _physical effort_ to make herself look Happstablook in the eye. "You seemed s-sad, and... lonely. And I th-thought... it'd be nice to... h-have a, um... a f-f-friend?"  
  
Her stomach dropped when a magenta-tinged tear beaded up in the ghost's eyes, but, much to Alphys' shock (and delight), Happstablook gave her a shy nod. "I'd... I think I'd like that. Thank you, Alphys..." They drifted forward a few inches, a silent motion for her to lead the way. Alphys stumbled a little in turning around, but after regaining her equilibrium, she strode out of the Dump towards drier land. There was an extra sprig of confidence to her step that hadn't been there before. Relief and excitement blossomed in her chest like a warm ray of light.  
  
"You know, darling..." Happstablook murmured quietly, "I usually come here because there's no-one around to disturb me when things are... difficult. But," they added, seeing her apologetic expression, "today I met someone very nice. And I'm... I'm very glad I did." The smile Happstablook sent her was dazzling, and Alphys felt her nerves calm almost the moment she saw it. The anxiety was replaced by warmth. They were... glad they met her?  
  
Her cheeks flushed with modesty and gratitude. "...I'm glad I met you, too."


End file.
